November postcards

 The colour theme for November was claret - this was the darkest winey red I had (it looks more brown on the scan than it really is).
I used the swirl centre flowerhead, as I thought that it looked quite like a single chrysanthemum, whihc was the flower option.
For the first card, I tried an experiment using PVA glue after I had seen a Facebook post by Barbara Cleggett - it did work (eventually), but when I do it again I will use less PVA so it won't take 3 days to dry in the airing cupboard and I won't ink the stamp up first with black memento ink! The back of the dried-clear PVA was coloured with red promarker and mounted onto a torn piece of watercolour paper coloured with ost red Brusho powder and sprinkled with salt while it was wet. I added some  microbeads into the centre of the flower.The strip of mesh was added to brighten the whole thing up, as it looked a bit grungy.
                                                                                      apologies, the post was by Doreen Sympson, which would explain why I couldn't find it last night! Check out doreenscards.blogspot.co.uk - the link should take you to the right post.........Barbara's blog is still worth a look!
I went back to normal for the second attempt - didn't have time to try the PVA again!- using the same stamp in black onto ordinary card and sprinkled with the ost red and purple brusho, sprayed with a lot of water, fussy cut out and clear microbeads added to the centre with double sided adhesive (PVA did work, but was too lumpy and uneven even for me in a rush!) and coloured with red promarker.

blue postcards

My postcards for the September Chocolate Baroque postcard potpourri swap - had to go with the colour this month, wasn't any too sure exactly what an aster or a forget-me-not looked like, though there must have been a CB stamp featuring them at some point!
I used a brusho background for both of them (why are you not surprised?) - the silver came from a can of webbing spray that I discovered in a drawer. I was a bit heavy handed with it, and think it would look better if the can was further away from the card, but can se it coming in useful for Christmas cards.
The poppy stamp was stamped onto the base with versafine, and again onto another piece of brusho card. I cut the poppies and the butterfly out, and glued them over the first image after colouring the stems and leaves with promarkers.
The Mackintosh beauty stamp was done the same way, apart from the second stamping onto white card, and more promarkers. I was very pleased to pick this set up in a sale bin at the recent Thetford show, so another one crossed off the wanted list!

August postcards

 The August theme for the Chocolate Baroque postcard potpourri swap was either gladiolus or poppy or orange.
My problem this month was that I have a LOT of poppy stamps, and was therefore faced with the problem of which one to use! I thought I was being very sneaky deciding to use a patchwork layout, where I could cram in as many poppy stamps as I could easily lay my hands on............what I hadn't though of was how long it would take to do!
I ended up with 2 versions, one with the hexagons just masked off and stamped and the second with them cut out and separated by a border from each other.
Images stamped with versafine in both, coloured with pencils and distress ink smudged round the edges of the hexagons.
I am blaming all this work on my friend who showed me her stunning patchwork and quilted wall hangings, but on the other hand I owe her thanks for the inspiration......

July postcards

quick post to add July postcards for the Chocolate Baroque postcard potpourri swap - I was even later than usual sending these off, but at least I did remember to scan them first!
This months themes were larkspur or waterlily and/or coral.
I completely forgot that I did have some small modern waterlily stamps, but did remember having the waterlily mandala  dating back to the days of Graphicus (showing my age here!) and I could even find them.........and, wonder of wonders, the set is still available!..The smaller image was stamped in versamark across a piece of coral card, larger image stamped in black versafine onto white card, coloured with promarkers and fussy cut out.

I have to admit that this was the fall-back option, after failing to make my not-so-brilliant other ideas work!
The only usable one of these was this one - image from the fancy flowers  set was stamped in black versafine and clear embossed onto watercolour paper, then sprinkled with orange and green brusho powders and heavily spritzed with water. Once it was dry, I added more orange in the centre of the flower and spritzed it again. Tore it out, then simply glued it onto a piece of the orange card.
The August theme is poppies - only problem here will be deciding which stamps to use, I have a LOT of poppy stamps - think there may well have to  be a patchwork theme here.......

June postcards

 The theme for the June postcard potpourri swap at Chocolate Baroque was rose/gold - I have used two different stamps and gold embossing powder, so two for one this month.
Both also have brusho backgrounds.
The large rose was stamped and embossed first, then the the brusho powders in yellow, green, grey and turquoise sprinkled in roughly appropriate places and spritzed with water - I was holding my breath while I did it, and would have had fingers crossed too if I hadn't needed to hold the spray!
It did work ok though, much to my relief.

The smaller stamp was stamped on a bit of brusho-d card and embossed, rose coloured with promarkers. Torn edges were also embossed with gold, mounted onto black card that was stamped in versamark and clear embossed using the leafy edges stamp all round to give a bit of interest to the black card.

potpourri daisies

 The April challenge for Chocolate Baroque postcard potpourri was to use daisies, and/or cayenne red.
I wasn't too sure just what shade cayenne was, and was pretty sure I didn't have any card or ink that  came anywhere near what I thought it ought to be - so daisies it was.
I was using the daisy butterfly set of stamps, and had intended just using the main image ..........after ending up with a binful of ruined card, I gave up and went with one of the other stamps, which worked beautifully first time.
Think I was trying to be too clever - and failing miserably!

Still, I now know that masking fluid works beautifully on water colour card, and is a total disaster on smooth stamping card - and that my watercolour card is another disaster zone as far as trying to get a decent stamped image on it was concerned. (and yes, I now have a smoother watercolour card that I hope will work ok)
The first one was stamped in versafine, background was brusho ink - daisies were bleached out before colouring with pencils. Butterflies coloured with marker pens, and the second one hides the daisy that just wouldn't bleach out!
The smaller image on the second postcard was stamped with versamark and gold embossed onto card coloured with brusho ink and a lot of water. Daisies bleached out and coloured with pencils again. I needed something to fill in the big hole on the left, the butterfly looked too lonely there on it's own, so used the tree stamp from teeny tiny meadow set, traditional torn paper and a sponge with color box chalk in in amber clay to make the scene.

February postcards

 The challenge for this month over at Chocolate Baroque was either violets or the colour lilac - not having any violet stamps, that meant the colour again. I'm none too sure that these even vaguely class as lilac, but the ink pads were the nearest I had, and I'm sure I have seen lilac growing in different shades of purple - that's my excuse, anyway!
I was a bit stuck for ideas too, then came across one of the Paris sets of stamps, and thought that might go - city of romance etc and valentines day in February............
The top one was one of the first efforts, using a piece of brusho'd card , very roughly overstamped with a stamp from gothic fragments.  I used a stencil of Paris found at the recent Thetford papercraft show with dusty concord ink over that, then added the image of Notre Dame stamped in black versafine on white card, coloured with victorian velvet ink and cut out. I darkened the stencilled birds with black soot as I didn't think they stood out enough.
I felt that this was a bit on the dark side, so tried to get a lighter effect with later efforts.
The second one was sponged with victorian velvet ink first, then the same stamp from gothic fragments in milled lavender. . The stamp and stencil were again in dusty concord, which was also sponged around the images.

pot pourri

 This is my entry for challenge 7 at Chocolate Baroque - I just never got around to the last few, so one of my resolutions was to try harder to keep up with the challenge blogs.............it did help that this time included my favourite colour scheme!
It also helped that the colour scheme for the pot pourri challenge on the Chocolate Baroque ning site was caramel, which I interpreted rather liberally, and this card began life as a possible for that challenge.
I used russet card as a base, and stamped the text and foliage stamps in the background using a colorbox amber clay inkpad that I found lurking in a drawer.The main image was overstamped in impress autumn leaf ink, and the edges of the card sponged with impress chocolate ink (more refugees from the drawer).
The image was coloured  with a waterbrush to draw the ink in from the image, then used watercolour pencil on the stems and leaves.  I stamped the poppy heads a second time, used the waterbrush again, then added derwent watercolour pencils to give them more definition - this was cut out and glued over the original image. I stamped the butterfly on white card and painted the wings with H2Os before cutting them out and glueing on.
Matts are dark brown, gold and green, and the base card was stamped with the text stamp in amber clay and sponged with chocolate.










The other images are are of  the postcards that actually went for the pot pourri challenge, and I just barely scraped in at the last minute.  I don't know what it is about January, but it always seems to go by in a flash almost as soon as I realise it has arrived - must be an age thing!
The first one used the window stamp from gothic fragments as the background, and stamped and decoupaged poppy heads - the bottom two poppies actually overhang the card, but don't seem to have come out on the scan.
The second one uses the same stamps and technique as the card apart from the fact that the poppies are stamped directly onto the card over the text stamp. the butterfly was just watercoloured with distress ink in broken china after stamping onto white card.